RESUMEN

The idea that households produce and consume their own energy, that is, energy self-sufficiency at a very local level, captures the popular imagination and commands political support across parts of Europe. This paper investigates the technical and economic feasibility of household energy self-sufficiency in Switzerland, which can be seen as representative for other regions with a temperate climate, by 2050. We compare sixteen cases that vary across four dimensions: household type, building type, electricity demand reduction, and passenger vehicle use patterns. We assume that photovoltaic (PV) electricity supplies all energy, which implies a complete shift away from fossil fuel based heating and internal combustion engine vehicles. Two energy storage technologies are considered: short-term storage in lithium-ion batteries and long-term storage with hydrogen, requiring an electrolyzer, storage tank, and a fuel cell for electricity conversion. We examine technological feasibility and total system costs for self-sufficient households compared to base cases that rely on fossil fuels and the existing power grid. PV efficiency and available rooftop/facade area are most critical with respect to the overall energy balance. Single-family dwellings with profound electricity demand reduction and urban mobility patterns achieve self-sufficiency most easily. Multi-family buildings with conventional electricity demand and rural mobility patterns can only be self-sufficient if PV efficiency increases, and all of the roof plus most of the facade can be covered with PV. All self-sufficient cases are technically feasible but more expensive than fully electrified grid-connected cases. Self-sufficiency may even become cost-competitive in some cases depending on storage and fossil fuel prices. Thus, if political measures improve their financial attractiveness or individuals decide to shoulder the necessary investments, self-sufficient buildings may start to become increasingly prevalent.

RESUMEN

With air quality issues in urban areas garnering increasing media attention, concerned citizens are beginning to engage with the technology as a means of identifying and responding to the environmental risks posed. However, while much has been written about the accuracy of the units, little research has been conducted into its effects on users. As such, this research deploys coping theory to explore the specific ways in which portable air quality sensors influence user behaviour. This is done using a qualitative exploratory design, targeting parents and carers of children on the school run. Drawing from survey and interview responses, the article illustrates the decision-making pathways underpinning engagement with monitors and the ways in which they influence behaviour and disrupt misconceptions around air pollution. The study demonstrates that personal environmental monitors can play a role in protecting children from air pollution on the school run. They can raise awareness about air pollution and disrupt misconceptions about where does and does not occur. They can also encourage the public to change their behaviour in an attempt to mitigate and manage risks. However, the findings additionally reveal that sensor technology does not generate a simple binary response among users, of behavioural change or not. When attempts at behavioural change fail to reduce risk, resulting negative feelings can lead to inaction. Hence, the relationship between the technology and the individual is entwined with various social circumstances often beyond a parent or carer's control. Thus, top-down support aimed at tackling air pollution at source is essential if this bottom-up technology is to fulfil its full potential.

RESUMEN

Exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) from fuel combustion significantly contributes to global and US mortality. Traditional control strategies typically reduce emissions for specific air pollutants and sectors to maintain pollutant concentrations below standards. Here we directly set national PM2.5 mortality cost reduction targets within a global human-earth system model with US state-level energy systems, in scenarios to 2050, to identify endogenously the control actions, sectors, and locations that most cost-effectively reduce PM2.5 mortality. We show that substantial health benefits can be cost-effectively achieved by electrifying sources with high primary PM2.5 emission intensities, including industrial coal, building biomass, and industrial liquids. More stringent PM2.5 reduction targets expedite the phaseout of high emission intensity sources, leading to larger declines in major pollutant emissions, but very limited co-benefits in reducing CO2 emissions. Control strategies limiting health damages achieve the greatest emission reductions in the East North Central and Middle Atlantic states.

RESUMEN

Serious air pollution motivates governments to take control measures. However, specific emission reduction effects of various temporary emission reduction policies are difficult to evaluate. During the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Beijing in 2014, the Chinese government implemented a number of emergency emission control measures in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area to maintain the air quality in this region. This gave us an opportunity to quantify the effectiveness of the emission reduction measures separately and identify the efficient policy combinations for the reduction of major pollutants. In this study, we evaluated the impacts of specific emission reduction measures on the concentrations of two major air pollutants (PM2.5 and O3) under eight policy scenarios using the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem). Comparing these scenarios, we found that the control policies against the primary PM2.5 emission achieved the most significant results. Meanwhile, all the emission control measures raised the ozone concentrations in different degrees, which might be partly attributed to the changes of PM2.5 concentration and the ratio of NOx and VOCs caused by the emission control measures. Our results suggest that, in VOC-sensitive areas like Beijing, emergency control measures focusing on primary PM2.5 emission could lead to significant PM2.5 reduction and relatively small ozone increase, and should be considered as a priority policy. Joint emission control at the regional scale is also important especially under unfavorable meteorological conditions.

RESUMEN

Agricultural practices can reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG). The definition of management practices toward mitigating GHG emissions could gain accuracy by integrating critical values of soil variables related to GHG fluxes. The aim of this study was to combine critical values of soil variables determining groups of GHG fluxes with similar and/or opposite direction of carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4). We determined CO2, N2O, CH4 fluxes, soil temperature, gravimetric soil moisture (GSM), soil inorganic nitrogen (SIN), soil bulk density (SBD), soil porosity (P), and water-filled pore space (WFPS) monthly in three consecutive growing seasons in a sugarcane agroecosystem. The regression tree method defined groups of emission. Six terminal groups of CO2, N2O fluxes, and four for CH4 fluxes were determined. The critical values of soil variables that defined the terminal groups with the highest fluxes were soil temperature (>19 °C) and GSM (>35.2%) for CO2, GSM (>29.2%) and SIN (≤1.1 ppm) for N2O, and GSM (>24.9 °C), SBD (>0.98 g cm-3) and SIN (>1.82 ppm) for CH4. Trade-offs were found among GHGs: N2O emissions were high and CO2 emissions were low when GSM and soil temperature ranged from 29 to 35% and 14-19 °C, respectively (moderate values). CO2 emissions were high and N2O emissions were the lowest when GSM was equal or lower than 29.2% and soil temperature ranged from 19 to 21.3 °C. In this study, we highlight that management practices aimed to mitigate GHG fluxes should consider the integrated analysis of critical values of soil variables for GHGs together in order to avoid trade-offs.

RESUMEN

Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) denitration may increase the emission of NH4+ and NH3. The removal and transformation characteristics of ammonium sulfate aerosols and ammonia slip during the wet flue gas desulfurization (WFGD) process, as well as the effect of desulfurization parameters, were investigated in an experimental system equipped with a simulated SCR flue gas generation system and a limestone-based WFGD system. The results indicate that the ammonium sulfate aerosols and ammonia slip in the flue gas from SCR can be partly removed by slurry scrubbing, while the entrainment and evaporation of desulfurization slurry with accumulated NH4+ will generate new ammonium-containing particles and gaseous ammonia. The ammonium-containing particles formed by desulfurization are not only derived from the entrainment of slurry droplets, but also from the re-condensation of gaseous ammonia generated by slurry evaporation. Therefore, even if the concentration of NH4+ in the desulfurization slurry is quite low, a high level of NH4+ was still contained in the fine particles at the outlet of the scrubber. When the accumulated NH4+ in the desulfurization slurry was high enough, the WFGD system promoted the conversion of NH3 to NH4+ and increased the additional emission of primary NH4+ aerosols. With the decline of the liquid/gas ratio and flue gas temperature, the removal efficiency of ammonia sulfate aerosols increased, and the NH4+ emitted from entrainment and evaporation of the desulfurization slurry decreased. In addition, the volatile ammonia concentration after the WFGD system was reduced with the decrease of the NH4+ concentration and pH values of the slurry.

RESUMEN

The improvement of diets from a nutritional and health perspective has been a critical policy objective in developing nations for the past few decades. However, the current stress that human populations are exerting on the planet has made it important to assess diets using environmental indicators, such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Therefore, the main objective of the current study was to propose a methodology in which Life Cycle Assessment results linked to dietary patterns in Peru were combined with nutritional and economic data to optimize diets. For this, a linear programming model was built in which the environmental, nutritional and economic information on a set of 25 dietary patterns in Peru were optimized in order to achieve the environmentally best-performing diet that complies with economic and nutritional standards. The result of the proposed linear program allowed understanding the amount of each individual food product that should be consumed in each city that satisfies all the restrictions included in the model in order to attain the lowest GHG emissions possible. Results demonstrated that GHG reductions in food diets can be attained through optimization. For instance, in the case of Lima the obtained reduction was 6%, lowering the annual per capita footprint linked to food diets to 690â¯kg CO2eq, as compared to the current value of 736â¯kg CO2eq. From an economic perspective, results show that there are important disparities between cities in terms of increasing or decreasing prices of the market basket. Considering that in most areas of the country food purchase accounts for approximately 50% of household expenditure, it is plausible to assume that food choice is a main carrier to achieve GHG emission mitigations. In this context, the method constitutes a useful tool for policy-makers to push forward joint regulations to improve health-related issues linked to the food diet and food choice together with recommendations to lower the climatic impact of diets.

RESUMEN

Biochar amendment has been recommended as a potential strategy to mitigate nitrous oxide (N2O) and nitric oxide (NO) emissions for wheat production, but its mechanism and effective duration are not well understood. The 1-octyne and 2-pheny l-4,4,5,5-tetramethylimidazoline-1-oxyl 3-oxide (PTIO) in combination with potassium chlorate were used to evaluate the relative contribution of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and archaea (AOA) to potential ammonia oxidation (PAO) and N2O and NO production as affected by biochar. Acidic and alkaline soils were collected during wheat-growing season, and four treatments were installed in each soil type: CK, urea alone; BE, biochar-enriched soil for 2-6â¯years; FB, fresh biochar added to CK; and AB, aged biochar added to CK. The results showed that octyne and PTIO efficiently assessed AOB and AOA activities in soil incubation. The AOB-driven PAO in acidic soil was largely enhanced by increased soil pH in BE and FB treatments, whereas AOA-driven PAO was not. And the contribution of AOB to PAO exceeded 80% in alkaline soil. The N2O and NO production were positively correlated with PAO in both soils. BE treatment decreased the direct N2O and NO production in alkaline soil, while both BE and FB treatments decreased the N2O and NO yields in acidic soil, indicating that biochar mitigated soil N2O and NO emissions for wheat production. The lack of differences between AB and CK treatments indicated that aged biochar lost its initial effects on PAO, while the biochar-enriched soil amended with biochar years earlier still functioned similarly as fresh biochar.

RESUMEN

BACKGROUND: Asthma is a common respiratory disease, which is linked to air pollution. However, little is known about the effect of specific air pollution sources on asthma occurrence. OBJECTIVES: To assess individual asthma risk in three urban areas in Israel characterized by different primary sources of air pollution: predominantly traffic-related air pollution (Tel Aviv) or predominantly industrial air pollution (Haifa bay area and Hadera). METHODS: The medical records of 13,875, 16- 19-year-old males, who lived in the affected urban areas prior to their army recruitment and who underwent standard pre-military health examinations during 2012-2014, were examined. Nonparametric tests were applied to compare asthma prevalence, and binary logistic regressions were used to assess the asthma risk attributed to the residential locations of the subjects, controlling for confounders, such as socio-demographic status, body mass index, cognitive abilities, and education. RESULTS: The asthma rate among young males residing in Tel Aviv was 8.76%, compared to 6.96% in the Haifa bay area and 6.09% in Hadera. However, no statistically significant differences in asthma risk among the three urban areas was found in controlled logistic regressions (P > 0.20). This finding indicates that exposure to both industrial- and traffic-related air pollution is associated with asthma prevalence. CONCLUSIONS: Both industrial- and traffic-related air pollution have a negative effect on asthma risk in young males. Studies evaluating the association between asthma risk and specific air pollutants (e.g., sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, and nitrogen dioxide) are needed to ascertain the effects of individual air pollutants on asthma occurrence.

RESUMEN

Based on the annual average concentration values, the health effects and health benefits as well as 95% confidence intervals of PM10 and PM2.5 pollution control from 2014 to 2016 in Zhengzhou were evaluated by applying the Poisson regression relative risk model. Results showed that the health benefits of PM10 pollution control were 18.18 billion RMB (15.04, 21.12), 24.25 billion RMB (20.25, 27.94), and 20.62 billion RMB (17.33, 23.92), which accounted for 2.7%, 3.3%, and 2.5% of the GDP of Zhengzhou, respectively, in 2014-2016. The health benefits of PM2.5 pollution control were 17.88 billion RMB (14.37, 21.16), 21.65 billion RMB (17.46, 25.53), and 17.25 billion RMB (13.78, 20.55), which accounted for 2.6%, 3.0%, and 2.1% of the GDP of Zhengzhou, respectively, in 2014-2016. After the PM10 and PM2.5 pollution was controlled, the number of urban beneficiaries was higher than that of rural areas, and acute bronchitis beneficiaries were higher than the beneficiaries of other health end-points. For chronic bronchitis, adults benefited more than children, while the opposite occurred for asthma. In this study, chronic bronchitis had the highest health benefit, followed by asthma, and outpatient and inpatient setting had the lower health benefits.

RESUMEN

To quantitatively assess the health benefits brought by the implementation of the Action Plan of Air Pollution Prevention and Control, we firstly analyzed the spatial and temporal changes of PM2.5 population-weighted concentrations over China from 2013 to 2017. The BenMAP model was used to analyze the differences in premature death between the PM2.5 baseline scenario in 2013 and the control scenario in 2017 in 338 prefecture-level cities nationwide, so as to quantitatively analyze the number of premature deaths in 31 provinces. The results show that compared with other provinces, the largest reduction in premature deaths due to the significant decrease of PM2.5 concentration occurred in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and its surrounding regions, and the environmental health benefits from air quality have been greatly improved. The results show that from 2013 to 2017 the population weighted PM2.5 concentration was decreasing year by year due to the significant decrease in PM2.5 concentration; Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, and the surrounding areas witnessed the largest reduction in premature deaths. In 2017, the number of avoided premature deaths in 280 prefecture-level cities nationwide increased, but declined in 58 cities. Taking the target value of the first phase of the WHO transition period (an annual average PM2.5 concentration of 35 µg·m-3) as the control scenario, it is estimated that the number of premature deaths in 2013 was approximately 101293, and in 2017 was approximately 41080. The implementation of the Action Plan helped to avoid approximately 60213 premature deaths. According to the method of 'willingness to pay', the monetary benefits are estimated to be approximately 54.97 billion yuan.

RESUMEN

Climate change is already resulting in extreme devastation in the earth, with carbon dioxide emissions produced by coal-fired power plants being the largest contributor. Therefore, integrated coal purchasing, blending, and distribution strategies are playing a more important role in large-scale coal-fired power enterprises due to the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and operational costs. In this study, a dynamic equilibrium strategy for integrated coal purchasing, blending, and distribution under an uncertain environment is proposed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in large-scale coal-fired powered enterprises; the practicality and efficiency of which are verified using a real-world case. Sensitivity analyses under different carbon dioxide emissions levels and satisfactory degrees were also conducted to give insights into the conflict between economic development and environmental protection for large-scale coal-fired power enterprises, and balance short-term and long-term production plans. The results indicated that the proposed method was able to achieve economic-environmental coordination and sustainable development. Compared to previous studies, the developed model was found to be able to reduce carbon emissions by about 30% compared with the maximum carbon emissions and improve carbon emissions reduction performance to assist in mitigating climate change.

RESUMEN

We investigated how UV treatment of indoor pool water affects the concentration of trihalomethanes (THMs) and chloramines (NCl3) in the air above one therapy pool. One-hundred and sixty-two samples of tTHMs (sum of the four most common THMs in swimming facilities) and thirty-six samples of NCl3 were collected simultaneously at poolside and in the extract channel in a room with one therapy pool for 2 days a week over a period of 5 weeks. When the UV lamp was on, the concentration of combined chlorine in the water decreased 58%, the concentration of tTHMs in the air increased 37%, and the concentration of NCl3 in the air decreased 15%. Between 42% and 56% of the gases in the air are recirculated back into the poolroom along with the recycled air. The correlation between NCl3 and THMs in the air was stronger when the UV treatment was on (r2 = 0.963) compared to when the UV treatment was off (r2 = 0.472). Using a linear mixed model, 30% of the variability in THMs was attributed to UV treatment. For NCl3, the number of bathers was the most important predictor variable. UV treatment has a limited effect on airborne NCl3 but increases the air concentration of tTHMs.

DETALLE DE LA BÚSQUEDA

Consulta Detalhada

(instance:"regional") AND ( year_cluster:("2002") AND pais_afiliacao:("^iUnited States^eEstados"))(instance:"regional") AND ( year_cluster:("2002") AND pais_afiliacao:("^iUnited States^eEstados"))(instance:"regional") AND ( year_cluster:("2002") AND pais_afiliacao:("^iUnited States^eEstados"))(instance:"regional") AND ( year_cluster:("2002") AND pais_afiliacao:("^iUnited States^eEstados"))